In the wild west during the 1860s, there is this family whose last name is Coates. There is Jim, his wife, Katie, and his 2 sons, Travis and Arliss.

Arliss is only 5 years old. As a hobby, he likes to collect wild animals to keep as pets, even if his mother disapproves of them.

Travis is presumably in his early teens. He sometimes becomes impatient with Arliss.

Jim has to leave the family to go to Kansas and sell cattle. Katie has to do a lot to manage both her sons with big age differences.

At some point, while working outside, Travis sees this stray yellow lab running toward him. He takes out his gun since he does not want the dog there.

But Arliss stops him since he wants to keep the dog as a pet. Katie actually advocates for Arliss since he never had a pet, unlike Travis – who had a dog when he was little. The dog is then named Old Yeller.

Sometime later, Arliss feeds a baby bear pieces of bread. Then he tries to reach it so that he could keep it as a pet.

Not surprisingly, the bear cub runs off as Arliss tries to grab it. In addition, the mother bear sees that and starts charging toward him to protect her young. Then Old Yeller tries to fight the bear.

However, a girl around Travis’s age named Lisbeth later tells him that Old Yeller has been stealing food from people. Despite that, Old Yeller proves that he can also protect cows, including the Coates’s family cow, Rose.

One day, though, Burn Sanderson, who used to own Old Yeller, decides that he needs him. But the Coatses need him even more.

So, in order to avoid trouble, Sanderson chooses to trade a horned toad from Arliss. In addition, he also gets a home cooked meal from Katie.

But there is bad news: cases of rabies are rising in the area. And it causes more obstacles to everyone – including the Coateses.

The opening was very promising showing Old Yeller running through the field as country music in the background sings about him. It clearly set up the premise.

Both boys had sweet relationships with Old Yeller. However, I do wish Travis had more empathy toward animals.

Arliss, however, struggled with that even more. I found it very unsettling when he tried to grab a baby bear and clearly wasn’t gentle with that.

It was no surprise that the mother bear came charging toward him. But that was not enough to teach kids not to bother wild animals like that. Arliss suffered no consequences from that afterward.

But back then, laws about wildlife conservation and protection did not exist. Even the knowledge itself of how you should leave wildlife alone was barely existent.

Aside from that, though, the other flaws were slow pacing and the story becoming less exciting – even with stakes rising.

Overall, I thought Old Yeller was just okay. There were some twists and turns that did make the film more engaging.

Otherwise, I give it 3 out of 5 stars.